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Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."

6 Comments on Morning Coffee – 14 August 2015

Fun find. About “daddels”: In northern Germany (were some “Plattdeutsch”, that is Low German as a language, still remains) you will still hear the words “Daddeln” or “daddeln”, the first as a noun as in “Nimm die Daddeln da weg!” meaning “Keep your fingers off!” and the latter as a verb meaning “to play” mostly with the connotation of wasting time, and “verdaddeln” a verb meaning losing money lightheartedly at a game. Now it’s mostly used in connection with playing computergames or consolegames. So it’s alive and well.

The KKR piece is, as usual for her, a must read. A point she doesn’t linger on: things have changed enough in tradpub land that not only did Hamilton not get blacklisted for breaking omerta, he ended up with a higher payment contract. Given the two year production cycle at the BPHs, it is a sign that proven sellers are getting harder to find (and more expensive) to sign since 2012-13.

An anti-trust suit against Amazon over format is not going to go anywhere unless they can prove that it is severely harming consumers. In which case Amazon can point to Apple’s iTunes M4A format or Microsoft’s WMA, or even the fact that MP3 (which can be considered ubiquitous) has to licensed by developers to use. In no way does publishers having technical issues meet the qualifications for an anti-trust suit. The answer will be to train staff or hire more technical-savvy staff.

The writer of that story is entirely delusional. He has an almost religious affinity for ePub and is completely convinced that antitrust laws can be used to force Amazon to convert to the True Path. (Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!) A number of very intelligent commenters were unable to disturb his unshakable faith. Astonishing.